We Respect and Honor the Men & Women of the US Military

The USS New York

With a year to go before it even touches the water, the Navy’s amphibious
assault ship USS New York has already made history. It was built with 24 tons of
scrap steel from the World Trade Center.

USS New York is about 45 percent complete and should be ready for launch in
mid-2007. Katrina disrupted construction when it pounded the Gulf Coast last
summer, but the 684-foot vessel escaped serious damage, and workers were back at
the yard near New Orleans two weeks after the storm.

It is the fifth in a new class of warship — designed for missions that include
special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and
700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

“It would be fitting if the first mission this ship would go on is to make sure
that bin Laden is taken out, his terrorist organization is taken out,” said
Glenn Clement, a paint foreman. “He came in through the back door and knocked
our towers down and (the New York) is coming right through the front door, and
we want them to know that.”

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, La., to
cast the ship’s bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003,
“those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,” recalled Navy
Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. “It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.”

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center
steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the “hair on my neck stood up.”

“It had a big meaning to it for all of us,” he said. “They knocked us down. They
can’t keep us down. We’re going to be back.”